Lambert takes running to new heights

Bree Lambert didn't take running very seriously when she was young, but she did discover a certain satisfaction in winning.

"I always beat the fastest boy in my class," she said. "I'd figure out who he was and make it my goal to outrun him."

That motivation seems to have stuck. At the Tahoe Rim Trail Endurance Run on July 16-17, Lambert won the 100-mile women's title and beat all but eight of the male competitors. At age 43, she also showed many younger runners that age is just a number.

This is the second time the Cambrian Park resident and elite ultra runner has come out ahead in this grueling event. At her first attempt at Tahoe Trail Rim in 2009, Lambert finished in first place for women, with her closest competitor more than 30 minutes behind her.

The 100-mile length of the course means many participants are running for a full, 24-hour day or more. Lambert crossed the finish line after a mere 23 hours, seven minutes and 43 seconds, beating her previous time by nearly half an hour.

And as if the time and distance alone weren't enough, the runners are faced with varying temperatures, high altitude and unpredictable terrain.

"All the ultras I compete in are mountain races," Lambert said. "In this case we had everything: We had snow and water because of the run off, we had to cross creeks that were just under our knees, we had high winds, cold, cold temperatures at night and heat during the day."

Advertisement

But none of that stops Lambert from achieving victory. To date, she has competed in four 100-mile ultra races and finished first in three of them.

Along with breezing through ultra races, Lambert runs her own business as a performance coach and fitness trainer while caring for her 10-year-old daughter. But her path to success has been almost as winding as the trails she now blazes.

Lambert moved from southern California to the Bay Area at age 19 to finish her college degree. While attending San Jose State University, she first began to consider putting effort into running and completed some 5k and 10k races.

From there, she was turned on to triathlons, completing her first one at age 20. Lambert began with sprint distance events, which generally include a half-mile swim, a 15-mile bike ride and a 5k run, and eventually progressed to Olympic distance triathlons.

She also decided to jump into mountain bike triathlons and qualified twice to the national championship level. Unfortunately, she then hit a roadblock that put all of her races on hold for a while.

In 2003, while mountain biking in Los Gatos with a friend, Lambert lost control and took a very bad fall from her bike. She had to be airlifted to Valley Medical Center where doctors informed her that she had fractured her pelvis and broken her collarbone.

One doctor also told her she would never participate in ultra racing again, but Lambert wasn't about to let that stop her. After her injuries healed, she was skittish about getting back into mountain biking and instead picked up where she left off in regular road triathlons.

She eventually completed a half ironman, which includes 1.2 miles of swimming, 56 miles of biking and a half marathon of running. But again, life took a bit of unexpected turn for Lambert in her early 30s.

She went through a divorce and became a single parent, and while those things might take some people out of the running, Lambert pushed through.

"Eight months after I gave birth to my daughter I was in Lake Tahoe racing the national championships," she said. "It was pretty exciting."

She also realized at that point what she really wanted to do with her life.

"I said to myself, 'I know I'm good at fitness and I have a passion for it, but how am I going to provide for my daughter?' " Lambert said.

She went back to school and earned a master's degree in kinesiology and started her own business. The name of her company, Live Well Finish Strong, represents the theme Lambert lives by.

"I get to be a role model for my clients," she said. "They've been my cheerleaders and I inspire them to push their limits. You should be able to model what you teach, so I push them and show them that I push my own limits."

What's next for the ambitious ultra runner? She said she would like to find a way to use her original college degree in broadcast journalism.

"I'd love to take my broadcasting experience to my work," Lambert said. "That would be awesome."